Illegal Alien: Term Means What It Says

I know that the lady is going to call as soon as she reads this and accuse me of being cruel, callous and insensitive. She does it every time I write something about illegal aliens.

When I wrote that we should have effective immigration laws, she called to say that I was selfish for wanting to keep this country for myself. Actually, I'm in favor of admitting a certain number of immigrants, as this country always has done, as long as they come legally. I just don't think we should try to absorb half of Mexico's population overnight.

What bothers this lady more than anything else is my use of the words ''illegal aliens.'' She says that I should refer to them as ''undocumented workers.''

That's the way they always are described by the groups that oppose new immigration laws. But it's not really precise to call them ''undocumented workers.'' If I forgot my wallet when I went to work, then I suppose I would be an undocumented worker.

If somebody snatched my car and couldn't show the cops any proof of ownership, would he be an ''undocumented driver''?

That's why I prefer the words ''illegal alien.'' It means what it says: an alien who is here in violation of our immigration laws.

Which leads me to the latest outburst of indignation by the pro-illegal groups. The federal government just established a policy that illegal aliens will not be permitted to live in government-subsidize d housing. In other words, if somebody sneaks into this country, your tax dollars and mine won't be used to provide them with free housing.

That seems logical enough. After all, if a stranger wandered into your home and said he wanted to live rent-free in your guest room for a while, you would probably call the cops.

But as soon as the new federal policy was announced, there was an outcry by several Hispanic organizations saying that this regulation was somehow unfair to all Hispanics.

That's what always confuses me. These groups keep insisting that anything done to prevent illegal aliens from being here is unfair to those Hispanics who are citizens or legal aliens.

If I follow their argument, they seem to be saying that if somebody crawls through my window at night, and I set the watchdogs on him, then I'm unfair to people whom I might invite to my home for dinner. Or if somebody grabs me on the street and demands that I empty my wallet, and I yell for the cops, I'm unfair to the Salvation Army workers who collect money on the street at Christmastime.

I think I have a right to decide who is going to be in my home or to whom I'm going to give money.

And I think that this country has a right to decide that it won't provide free housing for people who shouldn't be here in the first place.